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Alsop's Cloud to rise again

Plans for an alternative to Liverpool’s 2008 Capital of Culture celebrations will include a massive scale model of Will Alsop’s rejected Fourth Grace – known as the Cloud.

Will Alsop is in talks with a group planning to hijack festivities surrounding Liverpool’s 2008 Capital of Culture celebrations.

Alsop confirmed that communications firm October had approached him with a plan to create a massive scale model of his ditched Fourth Grace scheme – known as The Cloud.

October is acting on behalf of Liverpool art promotor the A Foundation, which, along with several other groups, is planning an alternative to the Capital of Culture celebrations. Plans include segregating off the northern part of the city with a ‘Berlin Wall-style barrier – complete with checkpoints.

The action is in protest at what many regard as the elitism of the festivities.

Alsop said: ‘[October] approached me a couple of weeks ago and I would be very happy to be involved. There is nothing that would give me greater pleasure.’

October director, John Egan, said that a number of firms, galleries and businesses including dance clubs Cream and Large Portion, had signed up to what he described as an alternative ‘edge festival’.

Although the hub of the protest is likely to be the city’s Stanley Tobacco Factory, owned by the A Foundation, the model of the Cloud, which Alsop said would ‘probably be made out of canvas’, would be too big to fit inside the factory.

Alsop said ‘I would like to build a significant size model.’

The Cloud was to have been built on the city’s docks alongside the famed Three Graces but was ditched in 2004 after Liverpool City Council raised concerns over costs.

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